Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 22
February 24th, 2010
– Luis Flores Domincan Republic native Flores has moved to the coldest climate of his career. Playing for Samara in Russia, Flores is averaging 13.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game in the Russian Superleague, alongside 19.5/4.5/1.9 in the EuroChallenge. His backcourt teammate is Bosnian national team member, J.R. Bremer. It’s not the tallest backcourt in the world. – Gary Forbes Forbes started the season in Serie A, and averaged 13.3 points per game for Vanoli Cremona. He left the team last month, and hooked on with Ironi Kfar Hamaccabia Ramat Gan (better known as Ramat Gan) in the Israeli league last week. Ramat Gan were last in the Israeli league when Forbes joined, but Forbes scored 28 points in his first and only game for them so far to lead them to a victory over Ironi Nahariya. And now Ironi Nahariya are in last place. – Alton Ford 28-year-old ex-NBA player Alton Ford was in the D-League last year after being out of the game between November 2005 and December 2007. He wasn’t perfect there, averaging 10/7/4 for two different teams, where the “4” represents his fouls per game. Ford didn’t start this year with anyone, but last month he caught on with Bourg in the French second division. In four games, he has totalled 13 points, 13 rebounds, 11 fouls and 1 block. – Sharrod Ford Ford started the season in Russia, averaging 7.8 points and 6.0 rebounds in 24 minutes per game for Spartak St Petersburg. He left in November (i.e. before the team fell to 1-11 and last place), and signed in January with Carife Ferrara in Serie A. There, Ford averages 11.6 points and 7.2 rebounds in 25 minutes per game. He had 0 blocks in 92 minutes in Russia; […]
Trade idea of the week
December 5th, 2009
Last Christmas Eve, the Houston Rockets traded Steve Francis and a 2009 second-round pick to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for a conditional 2011 second-round pick. I remember this trade specifically because I totally called it. The deal was made to help Houston dodge the luxury tax. And it worked, because they did. By dumping Francis’s $2,634,480 salary onto the Grizzlies, the Rockets saved themselves that much again in luxury tax savings, as well as picking up a $2,911,756 rebate from not being a luxury tax payer. The amount of money they saved was more than enough to justify giving the Grizzlies the cash to pay Francis’s remaining salary for the remainder of the season, and by returning the Grizzlies’s 2009 pick to them – one which they had previous acquired in the draft night 2008 three-way trade that saw Memphis move up for Darrell Arthur – the Rockets found sufficient incentive for the Grizzlies to help them. For the Grizzlies, they were essentially given a free pick; they were given a player that they didn’t want, but also enough money to pay his salary without him ever turning up, and they got a 30s pick for their troubles. All they had to do was sacrifice some cap space that they weren’t going to use anyway. (The 2011 pick is irrelevant; it is top 55 protected, and only for that season. So if Memphis finish in the bottom 25 of the NBA that year, which they will, then Houston gets nothing. The pick was only included because Memphis had to give up at least something, however arbitrary. Also, the pick Houston gave to Memphis to save this $5.6 million was the #36, which Memphis then used to draft Sam Young. Houston later bought the #32 from Washington for $2.5 million. […]
Liquorice Allsorts
December 25th, 2008
1) As you may know, Houston traded Steve Francis, a 2009 second-round draft pick and cash to Memphis for a conditional 2011 second-round pick. Memphis’s end of this is simple – they got their pick back for free. Houston gave them Francis, enough money to pay him for the rest of the year (or most of it, at least), and Memphis’s own second-rounder next year, which they’d previously given to Houston while moving up in the draft this summer. In return, Memphis only gave them a conditional second in 2011, which will be like top 55 protected or something, so they won’t even lose it anyway. They can now either waive Francis without fear of reprisal, get a free look at him as a player (unlikely), or keep him as an expiring. But more importantly, they’re getting their high second-rounder back. for no cost. It’s a good move. As for Houston, they give up a second that they don’t need in order to get under the luxury tax. It’s a good move for them, too. But here’s the real important thing: I TOTALLY called it. In a previous post, I wrote this: (After Antonio McDyess’s buyout, Denver is now no more than a small dollop over their eternal enemy, the luxury tax threshold. If they waft a pick Memphis’s way, they should be able to dump Chucky Atkins, whose salary for next year is only $760,000 guaranteed, thus not affecting Memphis’s 2009 cap space plan much. This move gets Denver under the tax, finally, and it need only cost them the pick that they got from Charlotte for Alexis Ajinca to do it. Also note that I’m just an ideas man, not a soothsayer. Houston would be sensible to do much the same with Steve Francis, who is entirely surplus […]
….But It’s Zach Randolph?
September 6th, 2008
ESPN: Knicks suggest dealing Randolph to Memphis The Knicks have a trade proposal on the table with the Memphis Grizzlies that would see Darko Milicic and Marko Jaric dealt to New York in exchange for Zach Randolph. OK, I get it. I do. I really do. “Here, take Zach Randolph! Take this extremely talented player who just so happens to play at your weakest position! Nooooooo, we don’t want anything back! You just take him!” I get that. When your job is to improve your team, and you are offered a highly talented basketball player for essentially free, it’s a tough one to turn down. And Zach Randolph really is highly talented. But he’s also Zach Randolph. And therein lies the problem. For all of Zach’s talents, his play has never been efficient, consistently sensible, or highly profitable. Just by playing him, you lose an untold amount on defence, something which Randolph simply does not do. And for all his versatility and skill as an offensive player, Zach has never had the greatest sense or awareness to fit into an offence efficiently – Randolph is a career 46.5% shooter who nowadays is starting his offence from increasingly near the three-point line, and with an intense aversion to passing. Bear in mind, this is a man once berated for selfishness by former teammate, Nick Van Exel. The problem is exacerbated when looking at Memphis’s other big men. Out of Hamed Haddadi, Hakim Warrick, Darrell Arthur, Marc Gasol and Antoine Walker, who represents a good pairing for Zach? Who is the weakside shot-blocker to counteract Zach’s absence in that area? There’s a bit there, mainly coming from Gasol, but there’s not much. Additionally, if Marc Gasol is to start at centre – and it looks like he has to – then how […]
30 teams in 36 or so days: New York Knicks
September 29th, 2007
Players acquired via free agency or trade: Zach Randolph (acquired from Portland) Dan Dickau (acquired from Portland) Fred Jones (acquired from Portland) Players acquired via draft: First round: Wilson Chandler (23rd overall) Second round: Demetris Nichols (53rd overall, rights acquired from Portland, not yet signed) Players retained: Malik Rose (opted in) Players departed: Kelvin Cato (unsigned) Channing Frye (traded to Portland) Steve Francis (traded to Portland) Bobbins: If he has not done so already, Isiah Thomas needs to write an autobiography. Actually, he needs to write about three. One about his time as a player, one as a General Manager, and one for amusing miscellany. I can safely say without a shadow of a doubt that I would buy all three. Not even a moment’s hesitation needed. And I think the same applies to about half of you. Maybe give him his own TV channel, and just run endless documentaries on him. I’d watch them. There’s just too much stuff going on at all times where Isiah Thomas is concerned. Win or lose (but normally lose), these Isiah-led Knicks have been an absolute fixture at the top of the NBA’s “did you hear this?” listings. From the moment he took over, ‘forfeiting’ the ‘future’ of the franchise by trading for Stephon Marbury (the notion that Milos Vujanic constituted most of the Knicks future is still funny), Isiah has continued to dumbfound, amaze and amuse in equal measures. Whether it be by making the type of trade for which they had to invent their own category (“A Trade Only Isiah Could Make”), or for one of many stories that come out about him (such as his role in instigating the brawl against Denver, or wanting to kill Bill Simmons, which is the Tarantino film they never made […]
30 teams in 36 or so days: Orlando Magic
September 16th, 2007
Players acquired via free agency or trade: Rashard Lewis (signed and traded from Seattle, six years, $112,753,504) Adonal Foyle (two year minimum) Marcin Gortat (two year minimum) Players acquired via draft: First round: None Second round: Miroslav Rakovic (60th overall, unsigned) Players retained: Keyon Dooling (opted in), Pat Garrity (opted in) Players departed: Travis Diener (signed with Indiana), Grant Hill (signed with Phoenix), Darko Milicic (signed with Memphis), Bo Outlaw (unsigned, may yet return) Bobbins: In a seven-day period in February 2006, first-year GM Otis Smith made two trades. One saw the expiring contract of Kelvin Cato and a 2007 first-rounder (later parlayed into Rodney Stuckey) dealt to Detroit for Darko Milicic and Carlos Arroyo, and one saw falling star Steve Francis dealt to New York – in a trade only Isiah Thomas could make – for Trevor Ariza and the huge expiring contract of Penny Hardaway. Within a week, the floundering Magic had been re-invigorated. Since the McGrady/Hill era had failed several years prior, the John Weisbrod era had made the Magic’s fortunes worsen further. Managing to do almost everything wrong, Weisbrod saw fit to end the McGrady in Orlando era by dealing him and Juwan Howard to Houston for Francis, Cato and Cuttino Mobley, a trade which vastly improved Houston but which didn’t do much for Orlando. Daring and skilled enough to somehow make the situation worse, though, Weisbrod subsequently traded Mobley to Sacramento for Doug Christie, a man who played only 21 games with Orlando, scoring 119 points. And that’s not to even mention the Varejao and Gooden for Battie deal with Cleveland that he also rustled up. Weisbrod then resigned. Which seems fair. Yet with these two trades in early 2006, Smith had managed to get some serious value for the two […]
